Snap-seal.



W.- M. BROOKS. SNAP SEAL.

APPLICATION FILED 001.20, 1911.

1,013,836 Patented 12111.2,1912.

INVENTOR I1Y7e 22': Atlarney COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60.,WASHINGTON, D. c.

WINFRED MUDGE BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO E. J. BROOKS & (30., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SNAP-SEAL.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VINFRED MUDGE Brooks, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Snap-Seals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates, in common with numerous improvements by Edward J. Brooks, to self-fastening seals, or snap seals as they are commonly termed, for use, as substitutes for lead-and-wire seals and other pressfastened or press-fastenable sealing devices, to secure the doors of railway freight cars and for other like purposes. Recent examples of such snap seals are set forth in specifications of said Edward J. Brooks forming part of United States Letters Patent No. 997 ,234 dated July 4, 1911, and No. 1,009,277 dated November 21, 1911, relating in common to what may be termed the bulb type of snap seals.

The present invention consists in certain novel combinations of parts, in snap seals of said bulb type; and in an improved snap seal embodying said improvements or any of them, as hereinafter particularly described and claimed.

The leading objects of the present invention are to dispense with the distinct catchmember set forth in said Patent No. 1,009,277, and, at the same time, to produce a seal operating in like manner and of equal or superior security against being fraudulently opened without detection.

Other objects will be set forth in the general description, which follows.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figures 1 and 2 are respectively face and edge views of a toppiece blank for one species of the seal part; Figs. 3 and 4 are edge views of the same as finally bent; Figs. 5 and 6 are face and edge views of a modified form of said top piece blank for a second species of the seal part; Figs. 7 and 8 are edge views of the top piece bent up from said modified blank; Figs. 9 and 10 are respectively face and side views of a body piece for either species of the seal part; Fig. 11 represents a top view of a seal part of either species; Figs. 12 and 13 are respectively face and edge views of one species of the shackle; Figs. 14 and 15 are respectively face and edge views of a second species of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 20, 1911.

Patented J an. 2,1912. Serial No. 655,769.

the shackle; Fig. 16 is an elevation representing the improved snap seal as it leaves the factory; Fig. 17 represents a magnified section through the seal part and fastened shackled ends of the first-species seal; Fig. 18 represents a magnified section through the seal part and fastened shackle ends of he second-species seal.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures.

The improved snap seal, in either of its species, is composed of a two-piece sheetmetal seal part, a or a, and a flexible shackle, I) or b, of suitable thin metal, sheet or ribbon. In both species the bulb-shaped seal part, a or a, is composed of a top piece 1 or 1 and a body piece 2, permanently united by an inturned circumferential seaming flange, 3, on the latter; said top piece is constructed with a pair of inturned resilient jaws, 4 or 4, integral with the main disk or central portion of the top piece; and'said central portion is constructed with an inlet slot, 5, having a central rounded enlargement, and with an upturned guard flange, 6, formed by the bisected metal cut from said slot. Both species of the shackle, b or 5, are, moreover, constructed with integral hollow-backed. face projections, 7 or 7', having, in common, rounded opening surfaces to interact with said jaws 4 or 4 in the fastening operation, and adapted to cooperate with the aw extremities in the fastened seal, as shown by Figs. 17 and 18; also with hollow backed projections, 8, to cooperate with said guard flanges 6 as inlet guards; and said projections 8, in common,

are preferably semi-ovoidal in shape, tapering toward the respective shackle extremities, so as to tighten by a wedging operation should the shackle ends or either of them be forced inward in attempts to unfasten the seal; said projections serving also to indi-, cate the original extremities of the shackle, so as to insure the detection of attempts to restore a violated seal.

In the first species, represented by Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, Figs. 9 to l -inclusive, Fig. 16 and Fig. 17-the jaws 4 of the top piece 1 of the seal part a terminate in downturned locking points, 9, (Figs. 1-4 and Fig. 17) of reduced width; and the hollow-backed projections 7, originally hemi-spherical like the projections 7 of the second species, are cut away on the side most distant from the extremity of the shackle, as represented at 10, Figs. 12, 13 and .17, to provide each with an opening fitted to'one of said locking points 9, and adapted to freely admit the same in the fastened seal as in Fig. 17, and thus to prevent the escape of either shackle end under extraordinary pulling strains. In this species, especially, the top piece so constructed may obviously be of a low grade of resiliency, and the whole of the seal part may be of scrap tin or other inexpensive sheet metal.

In the second species, represented by Figs. 5 to 8 inclusive, Figs. 14, 15 and Fig. 18 the jaws 4 of the top piece 1 of the seal part a are square-ended and curled to form effective extremities 9, Figs. 7, 8 and 18, and the projections 7 are left in said hemispherical form; any attempt to withdraw either shackle end from the fastened seal, Fig. 18, causing the jaws 1 to act like a toggle joint, and to prevent the escape of either of the projections 7 between said extremities 9 of the jaws.

The shackles Z; and I) will, in common, be made of different lengths and with or without rounded ends as represented at Figs. 1215, and either or both of them may obviously be provided with the customary distinguishing marks represented by T. S. R. R. and 1234556 in Fig. 12. One shackle end, in either species, may be fastened at the factory as represented by Fig. 16, or both ends may be fastened at the sealing operation, as preferred; the locking points 9 of the aws a of the top-piece 1 of the seal part a may be out at any stage of the operation of forming said jaws, and not necessarily at the blanking stage, Figs. 1 and 2; and other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention, and desire to patent under this specification:

1. An improved snap seal having, in combination, a bulb-shaped sheet-metal seal part composed of top and body pieces, the former constructed with inwardly bent resilient jaws and an inlet slot beneath which the extremities of said jaws are located, and a flexible shackle constructed with projections adapted to be inserted through said slot and to cooperate with said jaw-extremities in the fastened seal.

2. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped sheet-metal seal part composed of top and body pieces the former constructed with inwardly bent resilient jaws and an inlet slot having a central enlargement beneath which the extremities of the jaws are located, and a flexible shackle of thin metal having its face provided with hollow-backed projections adapted to enter through said slot enlargement, and constructed with rounded opening surfaces to interact with said jaws in the fastening operation, said projections being also adapted to cooperate with said jaw extremities in the fastened seal.

3. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped sheet-metal seal part composed of top and body pieces the former constructed with inwardly bent resilient jaws, an inlet slot having a central enlargement beneath which the extremities of the jaws are located, and upturned guard flanges at the sides of said slot; and a flexible. shackle of thin metal having its face provided with projections adapted to enter through said slot enlargement and to cooperate with said jaw extremities in the fastened seal, and hollow backed projections adapted to cooperate with said upturned flanges as inlet guards.

at. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulb-shaped sheet-metal seal part composed of top and body pieces the former constructed with inwardly bent resilient jaws, an inlet slot having a rounded central enlargement beneath which the extremities of the jaws are located and upturned guard flanges at the sides of said slot; and a flexible shackle of thin metal having its face provided with projections adapted to enter through said slot enlargement and to cooperate with said jaw extremities in the fastened seal, and hollow-backed semi-ovoidal inlet-guard projections tapering toward the respective extremities of the shackle and adapted to cooperate with said upturned flanges and to become wedged between the same by inward pressure.

5. The combination, in a snap seal, of a bulbshaped sheetqnetal seal part composed of top and body pieces the former constructed with inwardly bent resilient jaws having downturned terminal locking points of reduced width, an inlet slot having a rounded central enlargement beneath which said locking points are located, and a flexible shackle of thin metal having its face provided with hollow-backed locking projections adapted to enter through said slot enlargement and cut away to admit said locking points into the respective locking projections, substantially as hereinbefore specified.

\VINFRED MUDGE BROOKS.

itnesse's CHARLES C. LURIOH, E. J. BROOKS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

